Episode 269  |  August 13, 2026

Andy Crouch: Defending the Human Mind in an AI World

There's a dignity to humanity that is not summed up in our technological achievements, including this apex achievement of AI.
— Andy Crouch

Do friction, struggle, and silence make you fully human?

AI can generate an answer, but it cannot suffer with you, worship, love a neighbor, or become wise. Host Curtis Chang and Andy Crouch, the partner for theology and culture at Praxis, explore how AI may weaken our minds, distort relationships, and tempt us to outsource the very experiences that form wisdom, wonder, and sacrificial love. From chatbot “companionship” and AI-assisted grief to medicine, spiritual counsel, and the loss of silence, Curtis and Andy ask whether convenience is quietly creating a kind of cognitive metabolic syndrome and what we can do about it.

Chapters
00:01:22
Introduction to AI's Impact on Our Minds
00:04:35
Lessons from Social Media's Evolution
00:08:26
Cognitive Metabolic Syndrome
00:18:45
What Is the Purpose of the Human Mind?
00:25:23
Wonder vs. Power
00:26:49
Love Requires Suffering and Friction
00:34:38
The Limits of AI in Healthcare
00:40:53
The Danger of Outsourcing Life's Hardships
00:51:23
The Loss of Silence
00:58:11
The AI Forced Conversation on Being Human
01:01:03
Practical Ways to Protect Our Humanity
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Scripture from This Episode

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:30–31
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37–39
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